Three Thinking of You's

I’ve been working on catching up with the last three weeks of Viva la Verve sketch/inspiration challenges and I’m finally done! All three cards have a thinking of you theme, so I’ll share them together in this post.

Here’s my card for week 3. I made a small 4 ¼” square card using the pretty flower image from Verve's Kind Words as my focal image. I used a combination of markers and ink pads to get the two colors on the flower image. The sentiment, from Always on my Mind, is stamped in green ink that matches the flowers’ stems.

I paired the flower image with coordinating patterned papers from Papertrey Ink’s Pretty Pastels collection. I added a solid yellow circle underneath the image panel—probably should have fancied it up a little with some embossing, but it’s too late now . . .

Materials Used:
Kind Words and Always on my Mind stamp sets (Verve Stamps); So Saffron and Certainly Celery Classic inks, Certainly Celery marker, Very Vanilla and Close to Cocoa cardstock (Stampin’ Up!); Spring Moss and Harvest Gold cardstock, Pretty Pastels designer paper, Harvest Gold satin ribbon (Papertrey Ink); circle punch (Marvy Uchida)

This card’s for week 4. I was inspired by the colors and leaf pattern in one of the inspiration photos.

I used a trio of patterned papers from the My Mind’s Eye Bloom and Grow line for my card. The colors aren’t an exact match for the greens and blues in the photo, but their leafy prints captured some of the photo’s elements.

I used the same floral image in this card, again inking the image with a combination of markers and an ink pad. There’s probably not a real flower that’s this shade of blue-green, but I really like the look of the bolder blue against the softer shades on the rest of the card. I used a sentiment from Accent Notes at the upper right corner of the image panel and added dots of Liquid Pearls to the flower centers. I added a pair of aqua ribbon tabs under the image panel before adding it to the cardfront.

Materials Used:
Kind Words and Accent Notes stamp sets (Verve Stamps); Pacific Point and Certainly Celery Classic inks, Certainly Celery marker, Pear Parfait and Whisper White cardstock (Stampin’ Up!); Aqua Mist cardstock, Aqua Mist grosgrain ribbon (Papertrey Ink); Bloom and Grow designer paper (My Mind’s Eye); White Opal Liquid Pearls (Ranger); pearl Dew Drops (Robin’s Nest)

And, here’s my final card for this month’s sketches. I used one of the pretty butterflies from the Blue Skies set as my focal image. The butterfly is colored with Copic markers using shades of yellow and orange. I added a sentiment using one of the stamps that Julee included with one of my recent Verve orders.

The rest of the card is pretty simple. The colors came from one of the inspiration photos. I loved the rich, earthy colors. I also used a patterned paper with a design that’s similar to the design on one of the throw pillows in the sofa. To keep the focus on the butterfly, I used a trio of cream ribbon tabs along with some paper piercing as my only embellishments. I have a co-worker who recently asked for some get well cards, so I think I'll bring these in to her--I think they'd all work nicely for that purpose.

Materials Used:
Blue Skies stamp set (Verve Stamps); Rich Cocoa ink (Memento); markers (Copic); Dusty Durango and Soft Suede cardstock, Very Vanilla grosgrain ribbon (Stampin’ Up!); cream cardstock (Papertrey Ink); Bloom and Grow designer paper (My Mind’s Eye)